A variety of different types of medical devices may include wireless telemetry functionality. A clinician or a patient may use a programmer to wirelessly communicate with such medical devices. For example, a clinician or patient may use a programmer to wirelessly retrieve data from a medical device and to wirelessly program the medical device. Example medical devices including wireless telemetry functionality may include, but are not limited to, cardiac electrical therapy devices, neurostimulation devices, and drug pump devices.
Medical devices and programmers may communicate with one another using a variety of different wireless telemetry technologies. RF telemetry and inductive telemetry are two example wireless telemetry technologies that may be used by different medical devices and programmers. These different telemetry technologies may communicate in different frequency bands, include different antenna designs, communicate over a different range of distances, and transmit information at different data rates.